05/08/2015
Heather Kelly Marzullo ’03 M.S.Ed. ’10 urges her students at Hughes Elementary School in Syracuse, N.Y., to see beyond standardized tests. Single-digit scores do not dictate mastery in her classroom. Student success instead is defined by a lifelong love for learning.
And by that measure, the SUNY Cortland graduate and 2014 Syracuse City School District Teacher of the Year is earning high marks.
For the past five years, Marzullo has led a spring field trip that brings students from a high-needs school to SUNY Cortland for a taste of college life. It took place most recently April 29, when 44 fifth graders visited campus for the day.
“The trip is meant to give them a little more motivation than getting a ‘3’ on a test,” said Marzullo, who has taught at Hughes since 2004. “The trips are meant to say: ‘Yes, we’re done with the (Common Core) tests, but remember they’re not the finish line you’re working towards.
“You’re working towards gaining the skills and tools necessary to earn a college degree.”
Marzullo’s youngsters are treated like prospective students during their field trip. They receive a campus tour that shows off the College’s academic buildings, dining halls and fitness facilities. SUNY Cortland’s Admissions Office provides pizza for lunch. The College’s Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department leads them in games and activities.
And their visit also comes with a homework assignment in advance. Each year, the Hughes students make short presentations about themselves — their likes, their hobbies, their career goals — in the Corey Union Exhibition Lounge to SUNY Cortland students and faculty members.
For almost all of them, the trip marks the first time in their lives that a college education is introduced as a real possibility.
“Hughes sometimes gets a bad rap,” Marzullo said. “But I think we have the most phenomenal students. They inspire me every day.”
The elementary school, considered a “priority school” by the New York State Department of Education, pulls from a low-income area of Syracuse and currently is in the process of being phased out because of its test score performance. Marzullo has been offered the opportunity to pursue a certificate of advanced study degree several times, a path that would allow her to become a school administrator or instructional specialist.
Marzullo ’03 M.S.Ed. ’10 has brought her students to campus for a spring
field trip. These students visited in 2011.
“Anybody who spends a day with our students would understand why I’m completely content to spend the rest of my career in the classroom,” she said.
She attributes her outlook to her former SUNY Cortland professors, many of them from the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department. As a first-semester graduate student, Marzullo approached Associate Professor Brian Barrett and expressed her frustration with high-stakes testing. She wanted her students to see the big-picture benefits of an education, so he suggested a trip to the College.
“The most remarkable thing about Heather is her willingness to create opportunities for them,” Barrett said. “She routinely goes above and beyond for them and she challenges them with high expectations.
“Her aims are beyond tests.”
It’s often difficult for teachers to balance both high expectations and a strong rapport with their students, Barrett said. It’s easier to sacrifice one for the other. But Marzullo, who will teach at SUNY Cortland as an adjunct faculty member in the fall, excels at both.
She makes subjects from reading to math relatable for her students, finding ways to mix in sports and pop culture references when they’re appropriate. She quiets a rowdy classroom with two claps of her hands. She uses her planning time to counsel students who are struggling emotionally.
“I want to be that person who changes their lives and I want them to know that I’m here for them,” Marzullo said. “You take on a lot more than just that teacher role in a lot of situations and I’m 100 percent good with that.”
Test scores aren’t her only measures of progress and success. Instead, Marzullo points to the college application essays she receives from guidance counselors in her district, the ones that credit the impact of her teaching and her investment in students.
“Down the road, I’ll have sophomores (in high school) who come back and say they want to go to college and they comment on that one day,” said Marzullo, referring to the spring field trip to SUNY Cortland. “They want a college education because they saw it on that one day.”